Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Victims Of Government-Free Lebanon

The general population is used to living without politicians' help - but its most vulnerable members desperately need reform

By Patrick Galey
This commentary was published in The Guardian on 20/01/2011

Lebanon once more finds itself without a government following the toppling of its coalition cabinet last week – an event that attracted consternation and speculation the world over. As international observers expressed disquiet at the potential for civil chaos, the collapse was greeted in Beirut with nonchalance rather than celebration or despair.

In Lebanon, a country of 18 officially recognised religious sects, decisive and able government has always been something strived for rather than actually implemented. If Lebanese reaction to this seismic event has been subdued, it is because the country has become quite used to living without help from politicians.

At street level, little has changed following the implosion of a government that failed time and again to meet the needs of its people. But it spells bad news for some already neglected members of society, whose misery is likely only to increase as the days without government lengthen.

By the time the cabinet last met in December, its to-do list – an agenda containing sorely needed reforms and legislation – had swelled to more than 300 items. Included in these were draft laws designed to protect the rights of migrant workers, prisoners, asylum seekers and abused women. Amid all the wrangling about the international tribunal, not one of these items made the grade for discussion.

Legislation to increase punishment and accountability for the use of torture during interrogation or detention was overlooked, leaving thousands of inmates in the country's overcrowded prisons facing the routine possibility of mistreatment by guards who are rarely brought to account.

Lebanon's 400,000 Palestinian refugees remain barred from many professions, in spite of a draft law submitted to parliament last year, which would guarantee fairer treatment for them and for the country's thousands of displaced Iraqis and migrant Syrians.

Migrant workers – the must-have domestic appliance for Lebanon's well-to-do – are regularly beaten by employers and often mistreated by authorities. Human Rights Watch estimates that at least one migrant domestic worker dies every week. Legislation that would provide far harsher penalties for maltreatment has been jammed by MPs' bickering.

Electricity shortages plague swaths of the country. North Beirutis may tut at three hours a day with lights off; but by the time protesting residents of an eastern village blocked their main road with burning tyres last month, they had gone 15 days without power. There are those in the capital's southern suburbs who spend a greater amount of their lives without electricity than they do with it. Legislation to address this was stymied by inept governance.

Perhaps most tellingly, the government failed, in spite of valiant efforts from local NGOs, to reform its antediluvian voting system. In the parliamentary elections of 2009 and the municipal elections of 2010, Lebanese voters were not even given pre-printed ballots at polling stations (meaning that anyone with the energy or ambition could quite effectively strike rival candidates from the contest). Bribes were rife and, in a country where women make up just 2% of parliament, agreement over a one-third female quota failed to materialise.

It is not as if the previous government was denied the time to implement at least some of these reforms, which would improve the lives of thousands across the country. If a week is a long time in politics, then the 14-month tenure the last cabinet was afforded represented light years' worth of opportunities to push through change.

The population has largely learned to manage without a government fit for purpose; at least now it is official. Life will go on without politicians. It is the welfare of those who were ignored by the previous administration who will suffer for as long as it takes for Lebanon to find a new one.

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